Riccardo Crescenzi

Riccardo Crescenzi is a Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK. He has been a European Research Council (ERC) grant holder, leading a major five-year research project on foreign direct investment (FDI), global value chains (GVCs) and their territorial impacts across the globe. He is currently the LSE Principal Investigator of a large collaborative research project funded by Horizon Europe and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on inequalities in the era of global megatrends.

Riccardo has been a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI), a Visiting Scholar at the Taubman Centre at Harvard University, and at the University of California—Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as an Associate at the Centre for International Development (CID) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He has provided academic advice to numerous international organisations (European Commission, OECD and World Bank among others). Riccardo has also served as the Rapporteur of the High-Level Expert Group on Innovative Cities established by the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation and has been part of the National Commission for Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility of the Italian Government.

Riccardo is currently a Member of the High-Level Reflection Group on the ‘Future of Cohesion Policy’ established by the European Commission to offer advice and knowledge on maximising the impact of Cohesion Policy. He has a long track-record of teaching and research in regional economic development, innovation, FDI and GVCs, and in the analysis and evaluation of public policies. This research is published in top peer-reviewed journals in economic geography, international economics and international business and management and widely cited in academic and policy circles.

His most recent book “Harnessing Global Value Chains for Regional Development” (2023, Routledge) explores how regions, cities and clusters can build, embed and reshape global value chains for local enhancement